Refrigerating apparatus



Ap 1945- E. L. BARNES ET AL REFRIGERATING APPARATUS Filed Sept. 23, 1942 3 Sheets-Sheet l AT TY 5 April 1945- E. L BARNES ET AL REFRIGERATING APPARATUS Filed Sept. 25. 1942 s sheetsshi" 2'.

El NV E N T U R E:

H'K B E E R i N E 33 m 7 I ATTYS April 17, 1945; E. BARNES ET AL REFRIGERATING APPARATUS 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed Sept. 23, 1942 I/ II Patented Apr. 17, 1945 REFRIGERATILi G APPARATUS Eugene L. Barnes and Herman A. Brenner,

. Buffalo, N. Y.

Application September 23, 1942 Serial No. 459,396

13 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in refrigerating apparatus, particularly refrigerating equipment adapted for hospital use and more particularly apparatus especially adapted for the freezing of blood plasma or serum.

Experiments carried out through the past few years have definitely established the use of blood plasma in the place of whole blood in many clinical conditions and dried or dehydrated blood plasma has come into extensive used. It is prepared by freezing it and subsequently dehydrate ing it to provide a powder which may be dissolved in water for use.

Up to the present time, the most general method of so processing blood plasma has been .to subject containers of it to the action of a means when they are disposed in a substantially horizontal position, will not produce a mm .product of as good quality as is possible. In this latter instance, rotation of the containers is designed not only to assist in freezing the plasma as quickly as possible, but is carried out particularly to form within the container a frozen shell having a hollow core to provide for a practical dehydrating operation. This prior practice will not produce a uniform hollow core and thin walled shell which we have found is necessary for uniform, efllcient and fast dehydration. A non-uniform shell will tend to produce non-uniform dehydration and the dehydrated material so produced may deteriorate and, either by reason of such deterioration, or in any case by reason of higher moisture content, a greater period will be required to dissolve the product for use which may be as much as five minutes as compared with thirty seconds in the case of an efficiently dehydrated product.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a simple refrigerating apparatus for blood plasma, serum'or the like, through which the. plasma may be frozen quickly and efllciently.

A further object of the invention is to provide an apparatus of this character through which a hollow thin walled frozen shell may be produced having a substantially cylindrical hollow core producing an exposed inner surface of the shell of greatest possible area.

A further object of the invention is to provide an apparatus which will operate to produce a more amorphous product than heretofore.

A still further object of the invention is to provide an apparatus which may be conveniently used in any practical location.

A still further object of the invention is to provide an apparatus through which the product may be processed with a minimum possibility of contamination through excess handling.

With these and other objects in view the invention generally comprises a simple refrigerating apparatus through which a particularly efficient circulating system isprovided. In general the apparatus includes a rotatable member disposed within the refrigerating chamber and having means for receiving a container and means for rotating the rotatable member to form a substantially thin walled hollow shell and to expedite the freezing of the material within the container. j I

Preferably a plurality of containers are carried within the chamber and rotated about a vertical axis in order to provide for the most advantageous results.

The invention will be clearly understood by reference to the following detailed specification taken/ in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Inthe drawings- Fig. 1 is a longitudinal section taken through a preferred form of refrigerating cabinet according to the present invention showing the general arrangement and construction of parts.

. Fig. 2 is a transverse section taken through v the cabinet and refrigerating compartment thereof in order further to illustrate the arrangement of parts.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary detail partly in section showing the type of driving arrangeerating cabinet having a refrigerating chamber H] which is effectively insulated such as by in sulation Illa against heat infiltration to the refrigerating chamber. The lower part of the cabinet is formed to carry a condensing unit (not shown), and may also carry a motor B for operating purposes hereinafter referred to.

In the preferred form of construction, a refrigerating coil H is positioned within the low temperature chamber l and adjacent to the defining wall of this chamber. This coil is preferably circular in plan. An air baffle |2 cylindrical in form is located within the inside diameter of the coil I l which may be supported from the defining wall .of the chamber H) in any suitable manner. Supported from the base l3 of the chamber I0 is a mounting plate H, or other similar structure, spaced from the base preferably by means of standards If: which freely bear upon the base l3. The mounting plate l4 supports a plurality of bearing standards |6 arranged on a true radius from the center of the circular plate. Rotatably mounted in these standards are spindles H (see Fig. 3 particularly) which at their upper ends carry the rotatable members |8 having a plurality of upwardly extending spring fingers l9 which with the rotatable members |8 form a bottle or container carrier designed removably to carry a container C. It will be apparent, therefore, that a plurality of containers C may be mounted in these bottle carriers around the circumference of the restricted chamber In within the confines of the baflle l2, the bottle carriers being arranged as a group concentrically in relation to the center of the chamber.

Supported on the mounting plate l4 at its center is a, bearing support carrying the vertical, driven shaft 2| which is held in correct adjustment by means of the thrust collar 22 at the top of bearing standard 20 and above which is attached the hub 23 of an air rotor or fan 24. This may take the form of a shell-like casing mainly cylindrical in cross section and being slit as at 25 to form a series of louvers, the bottom of the fan or rotor being open so that air may circulate up through the bottom and out through the louvers.

The bottom of the fan casing preferably takes the form of a ring 26 rigidly secured to the fan casing and carrying the friction member 21 which may take the form of a rubber tire which is designed to have frictional engagement with the sloped surface 28 'of the rotatable members l8. Thus, upon rotation of the fan casing and attached ring, the friction drive will cause each of the rotatable members to rotate at a speed coinciding with that desired and. at which the fan is caused to rotate. Each rotatable member or spinner |8 operates independently of each other and any wear on the friction drive is readily absorbed by the clearance 29 between the rotatable .member and its bearing support, automatic adjustment being provided for through the sloped surface 28 on the rotatable members in engagement with the friction driving member 21.

pling 3| so that the shaft 2| may readily be removed from the coupling and readily inserted therewithin. Consequently as the mounting plate l4 merely rests in bearing engagement with the base of the chamber ID by means of the standards l5 and since all the mechanism above the mounting plate is directly mounted therefrom, it will be noted'that the mounting plate, standards, rotatable members and fan may be removed from and introduced to the chamber as a complete simple unit.

, The drive shaft 30 is readily driven by means of a pulley through the medium of a belt 36 connected with the pulley 31 of the motor B.

The refrigerating coil II is preferably provided with a plurality of spaced apart fins 38 and a baffle plate 39 is preferably provided adjacent the base of the baille I2 and supported by the standards Hi, this plate being annular in form and having a central opening of a diameter substantially corresponding to thatof the base of the fan casing.

In operation the condensing unit, normally carried in the base of the cabinet, lowers the temperature in the refrigerating coil The driven shaft 2| is caused to rotate at a selected speed,- preferably of the order of 800 R. P. M., through the driving connections from motor B, drive shaft 30, etc., thus causing the air rotor or fan 24 to rotate at a corresponding speed. The rotatable members IB are caused to rotate at a similar speed by reason of the friction drive member 21 in engagement with the sloped surface 28 of these members. Due to the rotation of the air rotor 24, the cold air is circulated down past the coil between the baffle l2 and the defining wall of the chamber and up through the opening in the bottom of the fan casing and out through the louvers. to be discharged against the rotating containers C, and thence up over the top of the baflle l2 to complete the cycle. In this connection the baffle plate 39 serves to direct the air flow up through the fan or air rotor.

The containers C are thus caused to rotate about a vertical axis at a relatively high speed and since they are filled to about half their total volume, the effect of this rotation will be to cause the material to be driven against the inner surface of the container, thus in effect forming a thin-walled shell with a hollow central core. Moreover, by reason of the uniform high speed rotation and the fact that the containers are disposed to rotate about a vertical axis, a relatively uniform shell will be produced having a substantially uniform vertical inner surface. This shell is readily frozen into this form by means of the cool air currents efficiently directed against the containers by the fan and air circulation system.

Furthermore, it should be pointed out that they will be formed with a smaller ice crystal, than would be the case were the containers disposed horizontally, which will produce a more amorphous product.

By producing a thin-walled shell with a hollow vertical core, as great an inner surface area as possible is produced in the shell so that dehydration can be carried out quickly and the dehydrated material resulting will have as low a moisture content as possible and substantially uniform throughout.

An. alternative and larger type of unit is shown in Figs. 4 and 5. This operates on exactly the same principle as that previously described so that as far as similar and corresponding elements are concerned, a detailed description is not necessary. In this form, however, the mounting plate 40 is supported oh rollers 4| and two series .of

bearing standards 42 and 43 are provided, each series being concentric to the other andcarrying similar rotatable members l8. These rotatable members preferably have a pulley 44 at their I bases designed to be engaged by a rubber or other driving belt 45 which may be arranged, for instance, as shown in Fig. so that upon rotation of the air rotor or fan casing 24, the driving pulley 46 thereof will cause the rotatable members or bottle carriers to .rotate correspondingly and the air circulation is controlled. in a similar manner.

For convenience in mounting the containers in their various carriers, an operating handle 41 may be attached tothe mounting plate so that by moving the handle 41 the mounting plate and bottle carriers may be rotated.

From the foregoing it will beapparent that simple and efficient types of apparatus may-be developed under the present invention particu I larly adapted for the processing of blood plasma,

serum, or the like. This simple processinghas many advantages since it is only necessary to insert and remove, as the case may be, capped containers in the refrigerating cabinet and this inserted in said chamber and withdrawn therefrom as a unit.

5. Apparatus as claimed in claim 3 in which an impeller is employed within said chamber for circulating the cold air therewithin and directly in the path of said containers.

6. Refrigerating apparatus of the character described comprising a refrigeration chamber,

refrigerating means for cooling the atmosphere within said chamber, a plurality of rotatable members disposed within the chamber, means in connection with each of said rotatable members plurality of rotatable members disposed within represents but a simple operation in relation to past practice. Moreover, little handling of the product or containers is required and consequently the apparatus lends itself to the handling of blood plasma'containers with a minimum possibility of contaminatinn of the productthrough excess handling.

Although simple and preferred embodiments of my invention have been described above, itshould be understood it is not intended that the invention should be limited or restricted to details of the structure or a specific form or arrangement of parts outside the scope of the appended claims. I,

What we claim as our invention is:

1. A refrigerating apparatus of the character described comprising a cabinet having a refrigeration chamber, refrigerating means for causing cold air to circulate in said chamber, a plurality of rotatable members, mounted within said chamber meansimconnection with each of said members for receiving a container partially filled with material, and means for'rotating each of said rotatablemembers at relatively high speed suflicient to form a substantially thin walled hollow shell of material within such containers to expedite the freezing of the material. I

2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which means is included for directing the flow of cold air directly against said containers;

3. A refrigerating apparatus of the character described comprising a refrigeration chamber, refrigerating means for causing cold air to circulate in said chamber, a plurality of rotatable members arranged within said chamber and dis-.

' at a relatively high speed sufficient to form a substantially thin walled hollow shell of material within the container to expedite the freezing of the material.

4. Apparatus as claimed in claim 3 in which the rotatable members are commonly mounted and commonly rotated and are capable of being the said chamber adjacent to said refrigerating coil, means in connection with each of said rotatable members for receiving a container, a

driven shaft within said chamber, an air impeller I located centrally of the chamberioperatively connected with said driven shaft and designed to discharge cold air against said containers, means for directing air from the refrigerating unit to said impeller, and means for rotating said. rotatable members. i

8. Apparatus as claimed in' claim '7 in which the means for directing air from the refrigerating unit to said impeller comprises a vertica means for producing refrigeration therein, a means of support disposed within the chamber,

a plurality, of vertical bearing standards mounted on. said supporting means and carrying rotatable members, a centrally located vertical bearing standard mounted. on said supporting means and *I- carrying a drive shaft, an air impeller attachedif to said shaft, and means in connection with said", impeller, having frictional connection with said rotatable members, for rotating the latter upon rotation of the impeller.

11. In refrigerating apparatus of the class described, a refrigerating chamber having a plurality of rotatable members individually mounted therein and designed to receive containers, a

driven shaft in said chamber, means for operatively connecting each of said rotatable mem-' bers with the driven shaft to rotate said containers individually at substantial speed in the refrigerated atmosphere and means located centrally of the chamber for directing a flow of cool air outwardly and directly against said containers.

12. A refrigerating apparatus of the class described comprising an insulated chamber, a refrigeratingcoil within said chamber, baflle plates defining a path of air circulation, an impeller inducing air circulation i said path, a plurality container carrying material to be quickly re- 10 frigerated, a driving shaft carried on said supporting base and" designed to rotate said rotatable members, and air circulating means located in spaced relation to said rotatable members for causing a flow of refrigerated air directly against each of the containers as they are rotated by said rotatable members.

EUGENE L. BARNES. HERMAN A. BRENNER. 

